Science News

This undated hand out artist rendering provided by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows the latest view of the Milky Way's structure. Our Milky Way galaxy may not be the snack-sized collection of stars astronomers have long thought it was. (AP Photo/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Robert Hurt, Mark Reid)AP - Take that, Andromeda! For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore.



Fish swim near coral reefs. President George W. Bush is to announce the creation of the world's largest marine protection area spanning some 195,000 square miles (505,000 sq km) in the Pacific Ocean, a spokesman said Monday.(AFP/File/Hassan Ammar)AP - The home of a giant land crab, a sunken island ringed by pink-colored coral, and equatorial waters teeming with sharks and other predators are being designated national marine monuments by President George W. Bush in the largest marine conservation effort in history.



In this April 13, 2005 iimage provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows a  synthetic image of the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover on the flank of 'Husband Hill' that was produced using 'Virtual Presence in Space' technology. Five years after the NASA rover Spirit landed on Mars, the six-wheel robotic geologist and its twin, Opportunity, are still on the job. Expectations were far lower when Spirit bounced to the surface in a cocoon of airbags on Jan. 3, 2004, followed 21 days later by Opportunity: The goal was to try to operate each solar-powered rover for at least three months. (AP Photo/NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory)AP - Five years after the NASA rover Spirit landed on Mars, the six-wheel robotic geologist and its twin Opportunity are still on the job.



AP - More earthquakes are rattling Yellowstone National Park.
LiveScience.com - It strengthens bones and muscles, improves mental health and mood, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer. Exercise is also good for your brain.
AP - Weather around the U.S.A.
SPACE.com - Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) met its goal of having its first Falcon 9 rocket in place and fully integrated at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by the end of 2008.

In this Dec. 26, 2008 file photo provided by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, anti-whaling protestors in the ship M/V Steve Irwin, right,  throw butyric acid onto the deck of the Japanese whaling ship, the Kaiko Maru, during a close encounter in the Antarctic Ocean.  Japan plans to ask Australia and possibly New Zealand and Chile to ban an anti-whaling protest ship from using their ports to refuel, an official said Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, heightening a high-seas cat-and-mouse game in Antarctic waters between Japan's whaling fleet and the Sea Shepherd conservationist group. (AP Photo/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Eric Cheng, HO, File)AP - Japan said Tuesday it plans to ask Australia and possibly New Zealand and Chile to ban an anti-whaling protest ship from using their ports to refuel, heightening a cat-and-mouse game in Antarctic waters between Japan's whaling fleet and the conservationists.



LiveScience.com - A nearly complete skull of a primitive cheetah that sprinted about in China more than 2 million years ago suggests the agile cats originated in the Old World rather than in the Americas.

A woman passes by a gas pipe of the gas-compressor station in the small Ukrainian city of Boyarka, near Kiev on January 4. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame as a dispute between the two bitter ex-Soviet rivals triggered major gas cuts in Europe in a dramatic escalation the EU slammed as unacceptable.(AFP/Sergei Supinsky)The Christian Science Monitor - Thermometers are plunging across Europe, and so is the pressure in the natural-gas pipelines connecting the continent with its key supplier, Russia.



Time.com - In a recent editorial in Nature, a group of bioethicists argue for using stimulants to enhance cognitive performance